【2022 Solutions】 Neuron Technology, moving and observing, starting with the eyes, the best smart medical assistant
2Looking around the world and in Taiwan, the number of patients suffering from vertigo is increasing year by year. When faced with vertigo testing, most people will choose to have it diagnosed by a doctor or hospitalized with neuromedical imaging tools such as MRI or CT for interpretation. However, this may lead to misdiagnosis of vertigo, overdiagnosis of patients, waste of medical resources, etc., and cannot be effectively traced back. The actual condition of the patient's dizziness. In order to solve the long-term clinical pain point of vertigo, Neurobit has developed a smart wearable medical device - NeuroSpeed smart glasses and an AI assistance system. It provides an AI smart solution for rapid screening of vertigo, assisting doctors in quickly screening more than 80% of brain diseases. Efficient detection power with accuracy and sensitivity of over 90%.
Neuron Technology was founded in 2016. The co-founders include Yang Juncheng, Chen Weicheng, Huang Jinxun and Wang Jingfu. The four of them were studying at the National Taiwan University Medical Engineering Institute and the Creative Entrepreneurship Program to jointly offer the "Biomedical Innovation and Commercialization" course. Next, let’s embark on the entrepreneurial journey together. The core team members of Neuron Technology are mainly composed of cross-field experts in medical engineering, information technology, neurology, patents, business, etc. The common entrepreneurial concept is to continuously explore and explore unsolved pain points in medical clinical practice. Seeing that patients were suffering from vertigo, Neuron Technology invented and independently developed an efficient and practical wearable smart medical device, NeuroSpeed Smart Glasses, which combines hardware + AI-assisted decision-making system software to provide an AI smart solution for rapid dizziness screening. .
Neuron Technology CEO Yang Juncheng said that the proportion of people in Taiwan and the world who suffer from vertigo is very high. In Taiwan, as many as 3% of the people (about 700,000) suffer from vertigo, while in the United States, about 1,000 people suffer from vertigo. Tens of thousands of people go to see a doctor due to vertigo. From the data, it can be seen that the vertigo medical care market is quite huge. Regarding rapid screening for vertigo diagnosis in the clinic, current rapid screening tools in hospitals mainly use neurological examinations, and most of them are processed through questionnaire-type scales. The diagnosis will rely too much on the patient's chief complaint and the doctor's experience judgment, and lacks quantitative indicators, resulting in Misdiagnosis of vertigo and loss of golden treatment time. For patients with vertigo who are admitted to the emergency department, medical diagnosis in the past relied heavily on neuromedical imaging tools such as computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). After observation, it was found that the equipment was insufficient. In the United States, the number of patients admitted to the emergency department Less than 3% of the population can receive immediate MRI diagnosis, and less than 50% can receive CT diagnosis. However, excessive use of CT or MRI diagnosis may lead to overdiagnosis and treatment of patients, and even waste of medical resources.
In order to help vertigo patients accurately and efficiently screen and triage and reduce over-diagnosis in clinics and emergency rooms, NeuroSpeed Smart Glasses, a wearable smart medical device developed by Neuron Technology, is believed to have a great impact on the overall application of medical resources and patient diagnosis and treatment. It is very helpful. Yang Juncheng said that if it is not necessary to use MRI to track the diagnosis, this device can be used as a rapid screening test before the existing MRI neuroimaging tools and after the patient is admitted to the hospital, reducing over-diagnosis of patients. NeuroSpeed's examination method is to quickly screen for nystagmus to identify patients with potential brain diseases. The examination method of this technology is to observe the trembling state of the eyes and a series of eye movements when the subject is staring at a stationary object, so as to judge Brain risks for appropriate diagnosis and treatment.
NeuroSPeed smart glasses can crack brain and eye diseases, clinical trial sensitivity reaches 90%
With the active research and development of Neuron Technology, two generations of NeuroSpeed smart glasses have been successfully launched. The first generation NeuroSpeed mainly provides doctors with real-time observation of high-quality eye images and eye movement response-related examination data reference, and does not provide auxiliary diagnosis. services. The second generation of NeuroSpeed allows physicians to record, track, store and view relevant eye movement analysis and pupil area identification, thereby effectively diagnosing diseases of the central, meridian and peripheral nervous systems. Because the second-generation NeuroSpeed product has the function of assisting doctors in analysis and diagnosis, it has been classified as a Class II medical device in the United States and must be certified by the U.S. FDA before it can be sold externally. At this stage, this product has completed pre-submission and will be submitted for review after the biocompatibility test is completed. It is expected that the second generation NeuroSpeed will successfully obtain US FDA certification next year.
In terms of actual verification fields, NeuroSpeed has currently cooperated with New Taipei Shuanghe Hospital and Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital for clinical verification. Its clinical results have confirmed the classification judgment of central nervous system diseases such as stroke and other vestibular system diseases. With the addition of NeuroSpeed Smart glasses are designed to be lightweight and easy to carry, detect quickly and easily, and have the functional characteristics of automatic interpretation. They can effectively assist doctors in quickly screening for potential brain disease risks in patients with vertigo. Field verification with foreign medical centers mainly involves vertigo patients admitted to the emergency department. Physicians can use NeuroSpeed smart devices to interpret the phenomenon of stroke diagnosis. Currently, the accuracy of clinical trials in the above-mentioned cooperative hospitals reaches 80% and the sensitivity reaches 90%. .
▲ Neuron Technology develops smart wearable medical device NeuroSpeed smart glasses
In addition to becoming the best smart medical assistant for doctors to quickly screen brain disease risks in the clinic and emergency department, NeuroSpeed smart glasses also assist doctors in the detection and assessment of strabismus risk. They are jointly developed with the Tri-Service General Hospital through neuron technology. The "Portable Strabismus and Abnormal Eye Movement Diagnosis System" is implemented in the Tri-Service General Hospital, providing doctors with a complete preoperative assessment of strabismus and postoperative tracking basis. This excellent R&D technology achievement was recognized by the 17th National Innovation Award-Clinical Innovation Award in 2020.
We know that many diseases can cause congenital or acquired eye movement abnormalities, and even cause symptoms of strabismus or nystagmus. Among them, as for strabismus, according to expert physician consultation surveys, the global prevalence of strabismus among school-age children is 2%. ~5%, while the prevalence of strabismus among school-age children in Taiwan is about 1% to 4%. Yang Juncheng said that clinical diagnosis of the symptoms of these diseases is mainly divided into two categories: deviation measurement of eye position and eye movement test. It has been observed that there is currently a lack of objective quantitative methods for diagnosing eyeball position deviation, and eyeball deviation measuring instruments are used to check subjectively. For Neuron Technology, the current NeuroSpeed instrument and strabismus and abnormal eye movement diagnosis system software can integrate objective and clear eyeball images, eye muscle function and eye deviation angle data as a rapid test that meets clinical diagnostic criteria. Service, the data of these tests can be used as the basis for doctors’ complete preoperative assessment and postoperative tracking of strabismus. Therefore, this system can provide objective and effective quantitative analysis, which can greatly reduce the medical risks of patients during surgery.
In terms of business model, Neuron Technology mainly cooperates with hospitals to sell research-based products. It is believed that the company expects to have significant revenue performance after passing the FDA next year. At present, Neuron Technology will use the country's first wearable smart medical device NeuroSpeed smart glasses and AI assistance system to provide software and hardware integrated solutions to assist doctors in quickly screening brain diseases and eye diseases, extending patients' golden treatment time and reducing social risks. health care costs to create a triple win.
▲NeuroSpeed smart glasses assist doctors in quickly screening brain and eye diseases
Looking at the world, the pioneer of smart medical equipment, a new paradigm of biomedical software and hardware system integration
In the early days of Neuron Technology’s entrepreneurship, technology research and development and business expansion faced many challenges. Yang Juncheng expressed his sentiments that since the NeuroSpeed product is the first medical smart glasses developed in China, both in terms of obtaining hardware raw materials and developing technical specifications, The challenges associated with building and integrating related systems are higher than those for consumer electronics. Additionally, bringing together cross-disciplinary talent and integrating it into a core team is also an entrepreneurial challenge. In terms of business development, although the company has accumulated clinical verification results and published related outputs, the establishment of market channels still requires continuous efforts to expand. It is hoped that it can continue to rely on the assistance of legal persons such as the Capital Strategy Council to actively create more diversified market channels and connect potential Cooperating manufacturers. In order to accelerate international expansion and market operation exchanges, the company will conduct a new round of fundraising planning at this stage to meet development.
Since its establishment, Neuron Technology has taken long-term development and stable profits as its operating goals. Yang Juncheng said that in addition to focusing on existing professional fields, we also develop and apply value-added products through the company's software development and software development. The accumulated R&D energy of hard integration is expanded to other medical disciplines and fields. Yang Juncheng hopes that Neuron Technology can become a pioneer in smart medical equipment, with research and development oriented to meet the needs of users and patients, and also hopes to become a model for the integration of biomedical software and hardware systems. For the medium and long-term layout, the company will promote industry-university exchanges and cultivate biomedical talents; integrate upstream and downstream industry resources to create smart medical solutions and platforms; and actively explore foreign sales markets such as the United States and Europe as a basis for sustainable development of the company. Vision.
「Translated content is generated by ChatGPT and is for reference only. Translation date：2024-05-19」
